Reba M Song Fic: The Greatest Man I Never Knew
by Svonnah-La-Fay
Summary: Best song fic ever! Does not follow story line, cause Tobias dies instead of Rachel...all about this careful RT that never went anywhere!


_What might have never happened between Rachel and Tobias..._

This story DOES NOT follow the books at all. It describes Rachel's reflections on a **love story** between her and Tobias that was never confessed. The characters behave a little differently, but not too much.

I consider this **one of my best works**, because, when heard with the original song, gives me shivers every time, but when **you read it blank** it's kind of boring, but one does what one can. Enjoy!

**From Rachel's POV**

* * *

**The Greatest Man I Never Knew **

**The greatest man I never knew…**

In the beginning, I didn't know Tobias. Didn't really care, I guess. That changed in a hurry.

**Lived just down the hall…**

I just saw him every day at my locker. His was right next to mine. I would time my entrances to school to catch him as he was leaving. Stupid, I know, but I couldn't help it.

**And every day we said hello…**

He was cute. And I could see as we talked that he looked at me different than the other guys. He was trying to see me as a person, not a model-shaped body.

**But never touched at all…**

"Tobias who?"

"You know, him," I said, pointing.

"Oh, _him_," the girl said, her snobby face looking at me pityingly. "Stay away from him. Not good for your reputation."

But I began to want him anyway…

**He was in his paper…**

This boy I watched, almost with obsession, was always in his own world, seeming never to notice what went on around him.

**I was in my room…**

And I myself, at that time, was lost in a world of social groups, parties, and trying to seduce the football captain.

**How was I to know he thought…**

I saw want in every other guy's face, but his was blank when he looked at me.

**I hung…the moon…**

I never knew then that he was as fascinated by me as I was by him…

**The greatest man I never knew…**

Now, three years into the fight, I didn't really know him any better, but I yearned after him just the same.

**Came home late every night…**

He came sometimes to my room, but always after midnight. I used to wait up for him, to try to talk to him.

**He never had too much to say…**

But he never really said that much. Yet I came to want for his every word, to want to talk to him as openly as I talked to Cassie.

**Too much was on his mind…**

I guess he was too obsessed with the war that took his parents away from him, that took his own self away from him. He never really had time for me.

**I never really knew him…**

At the end, we fought so hard and so dangerously, and I realized the person I had fallen in love with was never who I thought he was, and the man I had built up from the boy in my mind was torn apart.

**And now it seems so sad…**

I cry every time I think about it, every time I watched my heart break as he fought with me, saving me, bleeding at my expense…

**Every thing he gave to us…**

He was the most precious gift to our group, special, and we knew it. He had given up his human existence to fight with us…

**Took all…he had…**

And in the end he gave his life to us, sacrificing himself for the cause he had grown to love, to need.

**Then the days turned into years…**

We fought on. We lost sometimes, but sometimes we won.

**And the memories to black and white…**

He faded from our thoughts, but he was still a part of us, he could never leave us, even if I could no longer recall the way the sound of his words in my head made me ache after him more…

**He grew cold like an old winter wind…**

Finally, he was just an old memory to be cherished, to be taken out and hugged and loved sometimes, but eventually to be put away.

**Blowing across my life…**

I forgot the years of desperation and want, and no longer felt the rustle of his influence on my heart…

**The greatest words I never heard…**

One day, Ax brought me an old box, filled with what little Tobias had: notes, small change, a few pieces of jewelry he had found with his hawk eyes…but the most precious gift of all were the notes, the journals…

**I guess I'll never hear…**

It took me three days to open those journals. I couldn't stand to find my name in them, or to find its absence.

**The man I thought could never die…**

I watched the calendar carefully, marking down the days until the anniversary where I had thought I would die of grief.

**Has been dead almost a year…**

One year. One year ago he had died for us, alone and broken. I wondered what his thoughts were. What he wished for, what he regretted at those moments…

**Oh, he was good at business…**

He had been a wonderful warrior. So good and brave and honorable at what he did. His writing was just the same, so good, so pure…

**But there was business left to do…**

And then I read it. I read it over and over and wept more for those small pieces of paper than I had wept over his empty grave.

**He never said he loved me…**

There it was written, in words of darkest ink, his love for me. He never told me...he never told me…

**"I guess he thought I knew…" **


End file.
